Development Assistance Agencies Research Articles

Characterising performance information use in the primary healthcare systems of El Salvador, Lebanon and Malawi: multiple qualitative case study protocol

IntroductionGovernments in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and official development assistance agencies use a variety of performance measurement and management approaches to improve the performance of healthcare systems. The effectiveness...

Новые и «традиционные» многосторонние банки развития: результаты и перспективы сотрудничества

Most experts on multilateral development banks (MDBs) mention the possibility of large-scale co-financing in their forecasts concerning their future operations. However, interaction between MDBs and other actors, including co-financing, is rarely considered as a research problem for analytical and scientific papers. Yet this type of cooperation is one of the most important factors of effectiveness for the entire system of MDB financing. Thus, working in partnership with governmental institutions (development assistance agencies, export credit agencies, etc.), MDBs help attract additional financial resources and expertise in the countries where they are active. Working on state, regional and global levels, multilateral banks cooperate not only with governmental institutions, but also with private sector and civil society representatives. Such cooperation benefits both parties. In addition to mobilizing additional financial resources, it improves project preparation and implementation, taking into account national peculiarities, while partner institutions get a chance to use their experience and expertise. Given the recent establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), they are unlikely to achieve their main goal of narrowing the infrastructure financing deficit in developing countries without active cooperation with other institutions.This article discusses the results and examines the prospects of the NDB and AIIB cooperating with traditional MDBs. It also focuses on the new banks’ engagement with other financial institutions, including commercial banks and national development banks.The author analyzes interbank memorandums and agreements as a formal basis for cooperation between various institutions, and examines in detail the examples of co-financing infrastructure projects by the new and traditional MDBs, as well as new multilateral cooperation mechanisms established by development banks.The author concludes that the new banks’ strategies differ from those of other institutions, and each has its own advantages. The AIIB seeks to establish cooperation primarily with large institutions to use their considerable experience and explore co-financing opportunities for large-scale projects. The NDB, with limited membership and geographical representation, focuses on, inter alia, cooperation with MDBs with a small number of participants, national development banks and commercial banks, which allows it to adopt the best international practices and gain experience in specific countries, receive consultative support for issuing bonds and improve financial management.

More than a Question of Agency: Privatized Project Implementation, Accountabilities, and Global Environmental Governance

AbstractWith limited success, international relations scholars have used principal‐agent theory (P‐A) to understand gaps in global governance. While P‐A may not provide robust explanations, it is still useful for mapping long chains of complex, boundary‐crossing relationships and locating the gaps that characterize global environmental governance (GEG). In this article, first I argue that we can get beyond merely locating and describing governance gaps, and start explaining them, by considering the problems of accountability that contribute to those gaps. Second, I argue that outsourced sustainable development projects, implemented by for‐profit contractors, provide an under‐studied and under‐theorized body of cases for examining the relationship between agency and accountability. Finally, I use the example of a United States Agency for International Development post‐hurricane recovery project in Grenada to suggest that when development assistance agencies privatize implementation they prioritize more economistic logics of accountability. As a result, they may enhance short‐term economic efficiency and even become more accountable to their principals. But they fail to connect the means and ends of GEG, despite firmly stated, official commitments to “taking the environment into account.”

For Goodwill, Aid and Economic Growth: The Funding of Academic Exchange Through the Swedish Institute, 1945–2010

The article investigates the financial basis of state-sponsored international academic exchange through the Swedish Institute (SI). Founded in 1945 the SI is the main institution for Swedish public diplomacy and is as such part of modern foreign policy and Swedish soft power. This article maps the changing sources of funding as well as the sums spent on academic exchange from 1945–2010. It also discusses the various forms of exchange programs and gives an overview of the ideas behind and arguments for such programs. The overall picture is that state-sponsored exchange after 1945 has expanded. Not only has more and more money been spent on exchange, which led to an increase in the number of persons benefitted, but there has also been a diversification in exchange schemes towards parallel programs, each designed to fulfill a certain task. Though they fund different parts of the SI exchange scheme, the main sources of funding, however, have remained the same: the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, various development assistance agencies and programs as well as the Ministry for Education.

The Corruption of Ethics in Higher Education

Universities can be corrupt through the abuse of authority for both personal and material gain. In order to reduce corruption, quality assurance mechanisms might include anti-corruption evidence as a criterion for accreditation. Another implication is that development assistance agencies that make investments in higher education, may have to consider the level of corruption when making those investments.

Global forest conservation initiatives as spaces for participation in Colombia and Costa Rica

This paper investigates the spaces for participation that have been created by readiness preparations launched in connection with the international initiative “Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation” (REDD+) in Colombia and Costa Rica. I analyse the emergence of these spaces and who is leading the process in each country. My findings indicate that in Costa Rica, the public sector is leading preparation activities and creating the public spaces for participation in REDD to which private actors are invited. In Colombia on the other hand, NGOs, development assistance agencies and other private actors are leading the process and the state is the invited actor. I identify four factors that determine the scope of different actors’ possibilities to participate in the REDD+ spaces. These are (a) control of key resources, (b) ideological affinity, (c) the creation and dissemination of information and knowledge, and (d) the creation of norms to validate REDD+ pilot initiatives. The separation between these factors is not clear-cut and consequently they reinforce each other at different levels. The research presented here contributes to a better understanding of the implications that national REDD+ politics may have in the future functioning of the programme.

Beekeeping innovation for sustaining rural livelihoods. A success story

Over the last six decades, international development assistance agencies have tried to introduce innovations in developing countries to stimulate development and improve the quality of life of the poor. The results have been mixed. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of a project introducing modern beekeeping practices to increase household incomes among small farmers in Vietnam. The Project exceeded its targets in terms of the number of farmers who adopted the innovation and the number of households with increased incomes. The farmers also reported development benefits beyond those originally envisioned - improved health, happier family relationships, and greater respect. The successful diffusion is attributed to the readily observable, personally and collectively felt benefits of beekeeping, harmony with the social practice of sharing, and the efforts of the change agent to reduce the complexity of the innovation and to integrate local farmers' knowledge in the training and extension activities.

Low cost private schools for the poor: What public policy is appropriate?

Recent attention has focused on the existence of non-government schools that cater to children from low-income families. These schools can now be found in the majority of developing countries, many of which have a prescribed public policy to provide free public education. This raises the question, why would a low-income family choose to send a child to a fee-paying school if a place in a free school were available? This paper will report on case studies of low-fee schools in Jamaica, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia and Pakistan and will assess the reasons for their increased demand. In the past, some have argued that development assistance agencies should limit assistance to public school sector. Others have argued that the public sector is inadequate and in many ways has failed in its ambitions to provide a minimum quality for every child.This paper will consider what public policy should be toward low-cost private schools, including the policy of development assistance agencies which seek to assist low and middle income countries as well as the appropriate public policy for national and local governments. The paper will conclude with several recommendations. One recommendation is that although children from low-income families attend non-government schools, they continue to be citizens; hence they should not be excluded from poverty assistance strategies. A second recommendation is to expand government statistical functions so that non-government schools are regularly included in the calculations of enrollment rates. Lastly, the paper does not recommend voucher or other program of publically financed school choice on the grounds that the public sector should remain the main conduit for public schooling. It does, however, raise questions as to the limits of the public sector in delivering high quality schooling and whether these limits should be more candidly acknowledged.

Evaluating Capacity Development: What do We Really want to Know?

Capacity development is core to the activities supported by most development assistance agencies. However, the development of capacity is rarely evaluated. Where it is evaluated, the quality of evaluations is usually poor. Furthermore, evaluations of capacity development programs have rarely met the utility standard. In particular, they seldom provide the types of information that intended users need. Consequently, where evaluations have been undertaken, it is difficult to identify the influence these have made on program implementation or capacity development policy. Patton (2002) suggests that for evaluations to be utilised, they need to answer questions that are of interest to intended users. Consequently, this article attempts to identify the types of questions intended users of evaluations of donor-funded capacity development programs want addressed. The article outlines the first stage of broader research that investigates a framework for evaluating capacity development initiatives. The research aimed to identify questions that intended users would want answered by an evaluation of capacity development. Findings presented in this article result from an analysis of 54 interviews held with a range of intended user groups. These groups include: donors (those responsible for the program, senior managers and internal evaluation specialists); those in the partner agency (partner government executive, counterparts 1 and managers); those working directly on the program (managers and advisers/consultants); and evaluators. This research found that there was one particular question each user group wanted evaluations of capacity development to answer. Beyond this, the broad questions user groups wanted answered and the focus of these varied. Finally, there appeared to be little relationship between questions users wanted answered and those generally used for capacity development evaluations, which are based on the criteria established by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC 1991).

Donors and higher education partners: a critical assessment of US and Canadian support for transnational research and sustainable development

Linking key policy themes of interest in the published literature on development studies and comparative education, the article initially explores the potential benefits and risks of partnering transnationally for contextually informed research and sustainable development from the perspective of Southern and Northern higher education institutions. Higher education partnerships recently supported by the development-assistance agencies of Canada and the United States are compared and critically assessed according to the internationally relevant themes of external and internal funding, the involvement of additional partners and funders, and project duration. Comparative analysis of datasets compiled from AUCC- and HED-managed sources that encompass 74 CIDA-supported and 186 USAID-supported university partnerships active during 2007–2009 shows that CIDA awards tend to be substantially larger in amount and longer in duration than most USAID awards and that participating universities have contributed impressive cost-share resources. The concluding section draws out wider implications of study findings for North–South higher education partnerships with sustainable-development objectives and for the literature on the possibilities and limitations they embody.

Conservation biogeography forum: Neil D. Burgess

profiles ISSN 1948-6596 conservation biogeography forum Neil D. Burgess Senior Conservation Scientist (Africa), WWF US Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cam- bridge http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/zoostaff/csg/nburgess.html Interviewed by Antje Ahrends Neil Burgess obtained a PhD in the evolution of plants in 1987. Since then he worked for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, WWF (USA)‚ The Natural History Museum of the University of Copenhagen‚ The Danish Ornithological Society‚ the Danish Development Assistance Agency (DANIDA)‚ the United Na- tions Development Programme (UNDP)‚ the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund and Cambridge Univer- sity. Neil Burgess worked as a conservation scientist and conservation manager specialising in projects in the developing countries‚ especially in East Africa. These have included forest and marine conservation‚ conservation planning‚ capacity building‚ biodiversity inventory‚ costing conservation‚ improving pro- tected area databases and measuring the management effectiveness and the costs and benefits of pro- tected areas. Relevance of biogeography to your work Antje Ahrends: Is biogeography – “the study of the geography of life” – a relevant discipline to your work? Neil Burgess: Yes, biogeography is relevant to my work. It is particularly important to my work for WWF. We devised a system of Ecoregions that are used to prioritise where WWF should focus con- servation efforts at a global and at continental scales - Africa being the area where I work. This prioritisation scheme (called “Global 200”) identi- fies the most important areas for endemic species within major taxonomic groups - mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and other taxa. However, Global200 is not only driven by endemics but also considers ecological processes. African savannahs are a good example for that – they are not high in endemism but have the largest concentration of large mammals on earth, and some of the last re- maining large mammal migrations. A conservation prioritisation scheme that does not include such ecological process values would leave out impor- tant areas. So yes, from a practical point of view biogeography is very relevant to my work as it de- fines the areas where WWF works on the ground. AA: Do you think biogeography is relevant to prac- tical conservation planning in general? NB: Yes, biogeography, or rather conservation biogeography, is important to all conservation organisations, whether they are Conservation In- ternational, WWF or BirdLife International. All of these organisations developed their own conser- vation prioritisation scheme underpinned by bio- geographic information, and in many regions these systems agree. These schemes have been developed at a global scale, but also at finer scales – for example the Congo Basin – people use bio- geographic information in order to define where to work on the ground, which landscapes, ecologi- cal processes and species to conserve and how to design the protected area network. I think that the application of biogeographical data and some of the fundamental principals of that discipline becomes more tangible and relevant to practical conservation as you go down in scale. AA: Do you read biogeographic journals, or other- wise receive information on new findings in the field of biogeography? What are your main sources for this? NB: I do not read academic literature on a regular basis. However, working at a university I have ac- cess to biogeographic journals, and I read articles relevant to my work when I find out about them. I also published in and review for biogeographic journals, for example Diversity and Distributions. However, I don’t read these journals systemati- © 2009 the authors; journal compilation © 2009 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 1.1, 2009

DOES LEGAL TRANSPLANTATION WORK? THE CASE OF INDONESIAN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE REFORMS

This study examines the impact of corporate governance reforms by analysing the relation between firms’ operating performance and key ownership structure and corporate governance variables on a sample of firms listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange between the periods 1993 to 2007. Contrary to widespread belief that reforms in Indonesia have failed, this paper provides empirical evidence in support of the positive impact of corporate governance reforms. While the impact of family control, the firms’ business group affiliation, divergence between cash flow and control rights and political connection are all negatively associated with firms’ operating performance (ROA) for the pre-reform period (i.e., 1993-1999), these negative effects disappear during the post-reform period (i.e., 2001-2007), except for family control. More importantly, the relationship between family control and operating performance is negative only when the family’s control right exceeds their cash flow right. This study provides some empirical evidence and insights to both regulators and development assistance agencies on the effectiveness of Indonesian corporate governance reforms. Keywords: corporate governance reform, controlling shareholders, firm performance, Indonesia

The Role of Collective Action and Urban Social Movements in Reducing Chronic Urban Poverty

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of urban social movements in addressing urban poverty, particularly the poverty experienced by the chronic (or long-term) poor in Southern towns and cities. After a Summary and Introduction, the substantive discussion begins in Section Two by reviewing the scale and characteristics of urban poverty, outlining the challenges which movements and their members face. Section Three contextualises social movement activity as one of several development strategies used by the poor; the section reviews both individual and collective alternatives to movement activity, elaborating on the difficulties faced in including and addressing the needs of the chronically poor. The Section ends with a categorisation of social movements in urban areas. This includes three types of movement related to labour and employment; protecting and acquiring land and other assets; and disadvantaged social identities seeking greater political inclusion. The discussion of the inclusion of the poorest, both within movements and their activities, and in respect of the outcomes being in the interests of those who have the lowest income and/or who are otherwise vulnerable, highlights the significance of the political context. Section Four elaborates the relationship between movements/movement activities and the position taken by states within a five-fold distinction. The paper explores movements and movement activities with the bureaucratic, clientelist, authoritarian, participatory democratic and co-productive state. The final Section reflects on the discussion in respect of the inter-relationships between movements, their membership, their activities and poverty reduction in urban areas. It also examines the potential contribution of development assistance agencies to supporting social movements that engage with those in chronic urban poverty.

Whither biodiversity in development? The integration of biodiversity in international and national poverty reduction policy

The link between biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation has been the subject of heated debate for the last decade. One thread of this multi-faceted issue has been concerned with a perceived lack of attention to biodiversity conservation within the international development agenda following the prioritization of poverty reduction—particularly, the emphasis on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and on national poverty reduction strategies. In this paper I explore whether biodiversity has indeed “fallen off” the development agenda, as critics claim, by reviewing the policies of official development assistance agencies and national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).

The incentives and informal forces of development co-operation: key challenges for South Africa to consider

South Africa is planning to create a development assistance agency at a time of growing consensus that traditional aid practices need fundamental change. The profusion of bilateral, multilateral and private aid agencies has created an inefficient system that ensnares recipients in a complex web of regulation and time-consuming consultation that distracts the attention of recipient country staff and undermines the ability of developing countries to develop their own priorities. These faults, widely observed since the 1970s, persist because they are reinforced by powerful but perverse incentives operating at the diplomatic, organisational, staff and recipient government levels. Political pressures within donor countries prioritise diplomatic goals over developmental ones and persistently attempt to finesse rather than genuinely resolve conflicting goals. Confronted with a multiplicity of donors, each with its own complex rules, aid-dependent recipient countries frequently surrender planning initiative to donors and find themselves with an incoherent mix of disparate projects. Avoiding the mistakes of traditional donors and ensuring that South Africa becomes part of the solution rather than a new contributor to the problem will require careful attention to the design and management of South Africa's new aid agency. It needs particular attention to well-designed monitoring and evaluation systems, significant in-house research capacity, well-crafted enabling laws, systems to focus aid in a few productive areas, and efforts to identify and confront the perverse incentives that many aid agencies have preferred to ignore.

Gender Mainstreaming in Development Assistance Agencies: A Critical Review of Policy Experiences and Challenges

Gender Mainstreaming in Development Assistance Agencies: A Critical Review of Policy Experiences and Challenges

Micro Enterprise Entrepreneurial Growth: A Jamaican Frame Work Study

It is an acknowledged fact that Micro Small Enterprises (MSE) Entrepreneur with well-established policy initiatives and guidance has solved unemployment problems along with the necessary business development assistance agencies guidance, Jamaica as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), is no different.

Status and prospects for livestock production in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic

Some 16 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the Lao PDR arises from the livestock sector. Almost all output--live animals and products--is from traditional small scale production and about 90 per cent of all households in the country keep one or more species of livestock. Industrial or large scale production is of very minor importance even for pigs and poultry. Considerable international assistance has been provided for livestock development, initially from the Socialist states that were of the same political persuasion as Lao PDR and more recently from multilateral and bilateral development assistance agencies. In general this assistance has not conferred lasting benefits on the sector in part due to the failure of the Lao Government to provide continuing support commensurate with the sector's contribution to the national economy. Buffalo (1.1 million head in 2004) and cattle (1.3 million head) are the main ruminant species with goats and sheep (140 000 head) occupying a very minor position. Both pigs (1.7 million) and poultry (19.6 million) are major contributors to the household and national economies. Buffalo are now mainly meat producers, their former draught and transport roles having been taken over by mechanical equipment. Cattle, also once used for draught, are almost exclusively producers of beef. Pigs and poultry produce meat and poultry provide eggs. Lao indigenous livestock are mainly kept in low input systems, thus output is also low. Nothing is known of the genetic potential of the indigenous stock which are the victims of poor management, inadequate nutrition and minimal health care. There is strong and rising demand for products of animal origin within the country and in the greater Southeast Asia and East Asia regions. Given suitable and appropriate support the Lao livestock sector would be in a strong position to contribute to supplying this demand.

Decision-oriented environmental assessment: An empirical study of its theory and methods

The potential advantages of a decision-oriented theory of environmental assessment have long been recognised, but it is only in recent years that this topic has received concerted attention. This research advanced contemporary debate on environmental assessment through an empirically-informed evaluation of strategic theoretical and methodological issues associated with the practical application of decision-oriented theory. This was undertaken by critically analysing the decision-oriented Environmental Impact Assessment system of the German Development Cooperation (a bilateral development assistance agency) using a modified version of a recent conceptual and methodological development, Analytical Strategic Environmental Assessment. The results indicate that some aspects of decision-oriented theory offer considerable potential for environmental assessment process management, and should be employed routinely. Yet uncertainty remains about whether certain core concepts, notably the detailed a priori description of decision processes, can be achieved in practice. The analysis also indicates that there is considerably more common ground in many contemporary debates about environmental assessment than the literature, which has tended towards polarisation suggests. The significance of this research is that it recognises and highlights the contribution of decision-oriented theory to refocusing attention on the substantive intent of this globally significant policy tool.

The Effectiveness of Development Assistance in Education : An Organizational Analysis

Despite the rhetoric about the importance of international aid to education, resulting gains from aid to education have been modest and development assistance agencies actually assign it a relatively low priority. This paper examines why, if education is so important to national economic and social development, both public and private assistance to international education has remained so modest. It argues that the source of the problem lies within the development education community itself. The development education community chose to adopt a simple ideology with respect to Basic Education-for-All at the expense of many other important education sector objectives. The paper concludes that a common evaluation metric can be constructed fairly only by treating organizations in three categories (i.e., multilateral, bilateral, and NGO) parallel with their different mandates. The paper offers recommendations on how to increase the quality and effectiveness of evaluations of educational assistance if these organizational differences are recognized.